


Saving This City

by lehulei



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Cheating, Drabble Collection, Episode Tag, Filler scenes, Fluff, Gen, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-26
Updated: 2014-04-23
Packaged: 2018-01-10 03:46:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1154479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lehulei/pseuds/lehulei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drabbles featuring probably everyone in Starling City.  Leans heavily towards Olicity. Mainly episode tags, filler-scenes, things I just want to see happen and prompts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Just a Rich Girl

**Author's Note:**

> I've had a few scenes rattling around in my head since starting to watch Arrow. This was after Roy saved Thea the first time in 1x15 "Dodger."

He fought the urge to slam the door on the rich gullible girl as he closed it behind her. Who did she think she was, slumming it in the Glades? He didn't need her pity, her charity, her  _anything_. He'd been a bit stung at the surprised look on her face when he'd said that all her things were still in her purse. As if he was incapable of restraint, that he was just a common thief.

Well. Maybe he was, but he didn't need Thea Queen reminding him of that.

He stepped back but then hesitated. The Glades weren't the safest place for anyone, let alone some chick with expensive clothes and a little more swagger than someone her size should have. Peeking through the curtain, he saw her cross the street. Without thinking this through fully, he opened the door and went after her.

Keeping himself just far enough that she wouldn't see him should she look back, he made sure she got to the better part of town before falling back. He shook his head at her as he walked away. She hadn't looked back once, seemingly absorbed in her phone and checking the contents of her bag. A dumb move in the Glades.

::

He didn't mean for it to become a routine with her. Mostly because he thought that that first time was also the last time he was going to see her again. Yet she kept popping up at the most random moments, pushing him and his life in a direction he didn't think he really wanted to go in (or maybe he wasn't ready for). Despite that, despite the fact that she annoyed him, he couldn't leave her to walk through the Glades by herself. She didn't belong, but it didn't mean he wanted to see her get hurt.

::

Spoiled brats should stay where they belong. He forced himself to stay in his house, to stop making the effort. She kept wanting him to "be more." He didn't know why. Maybe it was so that she didn't feel that she was reaching too far below her if she could just get him on a regular job. Sure she was hot, but that didn't mean he was going to lose whatever self-respect he had just so he could get some.

But he couldn't ignore the feeling of needing to make sure she was safe.

::

Only after she'd helped him up from the ground, offering her slight shoulder to bear some of his weight, did he start to admit to himself that "something more" could be possible. At least with her.


	2. A Visit to the Exec Level

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to write something about what others would think if they heard something Oliver and Felicity said to each other and took it out of context.

"What time will you be there tonight?"

It wasn't the words that stopped Jerry in his tracks, it was the tone that they'd been uttered in: softly so that others in the office won't hear, but with a note of some other emotion that isn't entirely professional.

He'd been asked to bring up the latest weekly reports from R&D to the CEO QC's office. It wasn't a trip that he ever had to make, but since Stella, the usual runner, was out sick, he'd stepped in to fill her place. Albeit with some reluctance. He didn't usually do well when he was let out of the office.

Namely, because this placed him in contact with other human beings. But his department head had given him that look and he'd found his feet taking him out and up to the top levels of Queen Consolidated.

Peeking around the corner, he was met by what he could only view as something intimate. Not that he had much personal experience in that area, but there'd been the occasional (okay, frequent) cable show and once in a while romantic-comedy he'd indulged in.

The CEO was standing at his secretary's desk (like anyone bought the "Executive Assistant" line), one hand on the back of her chair where she was seated and the other near her keyboard, the position creating a protective stance over the petite blonde. She seemed oblivious to the way he loomed over her, her eyes focused on the screen as she typed something.

Mr. Queen wasn't looking at the computer. Instead, his eye seemed to be caught by a wisp of hair that had escaped Felicity Smoak's ponytail. Jerry struggled to keep his jaw from dropping as he watched him gently place the hair behind her ear. At the touch, Felicity glanced up at him with a small smile.

"I'll be there at the usual time," she said, finally answering the question Jerry'd first overheard. Their faces were turned to each other, the space between them seeming to shrink, and Jerry realized that he'd waited too long to make his presence known and would now just make this scene very awkward and possibly dangerous to his position and started backing out silently in retreat.

He succeeded as far as making it out of sight around the corner because he slammed into someone, a very solid someone. Afraid to see who he'd pretty much figured out was behind him(one didn't see the CEO without his bodyguard nearby), Jerry froze. The bodyguard stepped in front of him, hand out in front of him to take the documents Jerry had been meant to deliver with a severe look that told Jerry in no uncertain terms was he to talk to anyone about what he'd just seen.

The only thing Jerry seemed to be able to do in response was give a shaky nod and hurriedly shove the papers into the waiting hand, before making his way back to the elevator, swearing up and down that he was _never_ going to be making that trek up to the exec levels again.

::

John sighed as he turned around to make his way into Oliver's office and saw what the little guy had seen.

The two were still oblivious to the world around them until he dropped the papers onto Felicity's desk. Startled, they pulled apart, Felicity's attention returning to her computer screen while Oliver straightened his suit jacket, clearing his throat.

John just rolled his eyes as he made his way to Oliver's desk. When would they understand that it wasn't just Felicity's sudden promotion that made everyone at QC think they were sleeping together?


	3. Moira & Malcolm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I cheated on him with Malcolm Merlyn."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to delve into Moira's background a little bit.

Moira hadn’t married Robert for love. His father had needed the influx of money that her family could bring. Her mother had been desperate to have high society connections and the Queen name was as high as one could get. When Robert had been introduced to Moira at the Mayor’s Annual Ball, both had understood the role that they were given to play. Robert had been handsome and charming. Moira had been naïve and willing. They’d been married within three months. She’d thought that they could grow to have a deep love for each other over time. 

And for a little bit, she was able to believe. 

It was a shame that she’d been a little bit in love with him when she found out about his first indiscretion. She’d been sorting through his evening jackets, thinking to find a pair of earrings she’d handed to him during a party when these had grown too heavy when she came across a pair of lacy underwear that were most certainly not hers. There she’d been, standing eight months pregnant in their walk-in closet, crying as she realized that her husband was not truly just hers. 

She’d confronted him with the evidence, throwing it at his shocked face. He’d instantly apologized, tears in his own eyes in facing her pain. He’d made new vows to stay true to her and their son. 

And she’d believed him. Until Oliver had been five years old and she’d found the records for purchases at various jewelry shops for bracelets and necklaces that had never made their way to her. 

This time she didn’t say anything. 

When Robert returned from out of town, Moira acted as if nothing had changed. She carried herself as befitting a Queen, she held dinners and parties to benefit their family and company, she smiled and saw to her husband’s needs. And if she did all this with an air of melancholy, an underlying sadness in her smiles and her walk, well, Robert didn’t notice, probably happy that the façade of his perfect little family continued to hold up in the face of his perfidy. 

But Malcolm Merlyn noticed. Maybe it was her quiet grief that spoke to him, a widower still grieving his own wife. Maybe it was because Malcolm had always wanted to be one better than Robert. Whatever the reason, he noticed and he let her know, finding her in a quiet corner at a holiday party she was holding in the absence of her husband, making her smile when only Oliver had been able to recently. 

Later she would blame the loneliness or the alcohol, but that night, it was the connection, the sameness that had her touching his arm, that had him leaning in to her, that had them stumbling into a guest room in the dark. It was the human need for someone to see her as just a woman, someone with feelings, someone that could get hurt. It was the ache for some semblance of desire for _her_ touch, _her_ lips, not just another woman in an endless line. 

Afterwards, as she pulled down her dress and righted her hair, as he buttoned up his pants and straightened his tie, they agreed it was a one time thing, that it was never to be repeated. They gave each other soft smiles, layered with understanding and maybe just a little bit of love, for being there, for understanding. 

When she gave birth to her daughter later that year, seeing the Merlyn dark hair and Malcolm’s eyes as she held the tiny girl, she knew she wouldn’t be able to speak of this to anyone – not Malcolm and certainly not Robert. If there was any spot of happiness in her life, it was her children, and that she would preserve above anything else. And so she promised Thea Queen, whispering the secret over her baby’s warm, soft skin, where it would stay. 


End file.
